A few years back, my mother reminded me of a conversation that we had around Easter time in 2001, shortly after the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, during which I said that I thought that war with the Taliban would be inevitable. I'd forgotten the conversation, but mom brought it up years later, when my baby brother, Gomez, was going to Kandahar for the first time. My brother Vincenzo is there now- my two younger brothers spent some weeks together there earlier this year. Of course, both of them have also done tours in Iraq. As you can surmise, I take the awful, awful foreign policy of the U.S. personally.

When the Afghans finally drove the Soviets out, where the hell was our State Department, giving the Afghans aid in building a civil society? There was a time when we treated our enemies better than we were treating our allies. We didn't drain the swamp, and now we're futilely trying to swat mosquitoes (albeit ones carrying a virulent disease) with sledgehammers. Ten years of war, thirty-two years of immoral, poorly thought-out foreign policy, and what positive outcome is possible?

One faction of Afghans, anyway.Seems to me that Afghanistan did used to have a nascent civil society, with a progressive government; but the government had the misfortune of receiving Soviet support, so the US built up an alliance of religious fanatics and corrupt regional warlords to serve as their proxy army to overthrow it.

So back then the US decided that peace & stability in Afghanistan was less important than an opportunity to embarrass Gorbachev. The Afghans were disposable collateral damage then; I'm not expecting them to suddenly become important.

About Me

The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.